Donation of 18 GPS devices for the purposes of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mine Action Center activities

18 GPS devices donated by the Government and the Embassy of the United States, through International Fund for the enhancement of human safety-ITF, were handed over to Bosnia and Herzegovina Mine Action Centre, at the official ceremony held at BHMAC premises in Sarajevo toady.

The value of donation in the amount of 81 530 USD will significantly improve BHMAC daily activities of survey operations and creation of mine action projects, as well as the monitoring and control of the tasks, performed by the accredited demining organizations.

Air bomb of great destructive power, heavy 466 kg, was removed from Vrbas river bed by the members of the police and civil protection.
After all safety requirements were met, primarily involving evacuation of the population living near the site, the bomb was removed and safely transported and it will be destroyed at Manjača site.

According to data available at BHMAC database, all the border crossings in BiH are safe from the mine threat.
However, in the vicinity of some of the border crossings, there might be a risk of the mine threat, but these areas are properly marked with mine warning signs.

In order to ensure security, MAC will do the checkings and renewal of placed mine mark in these areas.

If there be eny movements in the vicinity of these areas, BHMAC will be ready to respond adequately in terms of additional warnings and of deterring persons from entering the suspicious areas.

Federal Civil Protection is currently conducting demining activities in the area Kazagići, local community Hubjeri, municipality Gorazde.

Technical survey activities will be conducted at area of 72.965,00m2, where 20 pieces of anti-personnel, anti-personnel mines and tripwires are expected to be found . Demining activities should be completed in the next two months.

Clearance task Brđani Remičke, scoping area of 9,061.89m2, was opened in Pelagićevo. Activities will be implemented by demining organization „POINT d.o.o“.

Clearance task Dubrave Bubanj, scoping area of 22.495,39m2, was opened in Brčko Distrikt. Activities will be implemented by demining organization „UG DEMIRA“.

On 1 August 2015, is the fifth anniversary of the entry into force of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, signed in 2008 by Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Current size of mine suspected area in BiH covers 1176.5 km2 or 2.3% of the total land area, with 1,417 communities affected by landmines/UXO, which directly affects the safety of about 538,500 people, or about 15% of the total population of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Since 1996, there were 1,733 mine and UXO casualties, out of which 604 with fatal income. During the field operations, there were 116 casualties among deminers, out of which 47 fatal.
Each year, humanitarian demining operations clear about 12 km2 of risk area, while BHMAC using systematic and general survey, reduce about 38 km2, which amounts to around 50 km2 of reduced area per year.
So far, 59800 AP mines, around 8300 antitank mines and around 54300 UXO were found, while over 170 km2 of risk areas was demined.

As a part of Land Release project funded by EU Delegation to BiH and implemented by BHMAC, members of team for the development of Standards for Land Release, held a meeting in Sarajevo in period 27-29.07.2015.

At the 16 session of the BiH Council of Ministers, held on 23.07.2015 in Sarajevo, by the proposal of the BiH Ministry of Civil Affairs, Council of Ministers brought the Decision on the appointment of new members of the Demining Commission in BiH.

On 23rd July, NPA implemented Mine risk education (MRE) in mine-affected community of Zagoni, municipality of Bratunac. The MRE activities were carried out through the presentation, small group discussions, by informing population about on-going mine action activities from door to door, as well as setting up of posters with safety warning messages.

On 21.07.2015., in the area of Donji Vuksic, Brcko District, task Vuksic Donji - Tinjaši 5, covering 103.958m2, was successfully completed.